1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of digital content distribution. More specifically, the present invention is related to protecting and upgrading digital content in a digital content distribution system through the use of content insurance.
2. Background
As more and more content is created or made available in digital form and as the ways of distributing such content change, new challenges are arising in terms of preserving this content. The reliability of storage systems such as hard disks or solid state memories is quite high, but data loss is not uncommon. This may be due to hardware or software failures, as well as human errors or intentional destruction, as is the case for computer viruses.
This is a potential problem in data storage for personal use as well as within organizations; however, the latter are more likely to take measures to protect their data through backups. Nevertheless, large amounts of data still remain unprotected in corporations and especially in small businesses. The percentage of data that has not been backed up is typically even higher in private computers or other consumer electronic devices.
A shared characteristic of the various forms of content intended to be distributed for commercial purposes is that the original costs of production are several orders of magnitude more than production of each individual copy thereafter. Technological advances, from Gutenberg's press to the World Wide Web, continue to widen that gap.
When consumers of that content buy a copy, be it a song, a motion picture or a news article, an insignificant percentage of the purchase price goes to cover the marginal cost of distributing that copy. This is even more clear on the Internet, where most, if not all, costs incurred by the distributor when content is downloaded, are fixed.
Content itself is not sold to consumers, but rather is implicitly licensed to them. As an example, one of the most widespread implicit licensing agreements for copyrighted material is that used in the sales of music records. Under the conditions of this agreement, the buyer purchases limited rights to listen to the contents of a piece of media—vinyl record, cassette tape, compact disc, or similar technologies—for as long as this media is usable. Limited copies are generally also considered “fair use” as long as they meet certain requirements.
Different types of media have different useful lives. For instance, analog cassette tapes contain magnetic materials that were polarized to encode an audio signal; the quality of this encoding would progressively fade with repeated playback, fast forward/rewind, heat and other external factors. Typical useful life of a cassette tape was two years or 20 playbacks, whichever happened first, before quality was noticeably lower than when originally recorded.
Compact discs and related technologies like DVD use optical methods to read and write information, which is digitally encoded. These media are therefore not subject to the progressive quality degradation described above, but if the surface gets too dirty or scratched then whole sections may be lost. CDs are also relatively fragile and do not stand significant physical stress.
More recently, with the advent of cheaper magnetic heads and solid state storage combined with advanced compression techniques, the use of “general purpose” computer storage has become an economically viable alternative for storage of content in digital form. In addition, with the advent of these technological advances, the distribution of content has begun to move from traditional hard media to electronic distribution over communication networks such as the Internet.
With the interplay of decreased marginal cost of reproduction of content in digital form and property rights of such content, a number of content distribution models have arisen. One such model is a direct content distribution model, illustrated in FIG. 1a. In this model, a merchant 100 receives digital content from the content owner 104 and the digital content is stored at the merchant's site. The consumer 102 shops at the merchant's site and purchases content from merchant 100. Once the content is purchased from merchant 100, the content is downloaded from merchant 100 to consumer 102.
A second content distribution model is depicted in FIG. 1b. In this model, consumer 102 purchases content from a merchant 100. When consumer 102 purchases content from merchant 100, merchant 100 informs clearing house 106 of this transaction. Clearing house 106 then generates a voucher for the purchase. This voucher is then presented to content owner 104, allowing consumer 102 to download the content from owner 104. The voucher is presented to owner 104 either by clearing house 106 or consumer 102.
Typically, in the distribution models, there is a concern about controlling the distribution of the content in order to protect the property rights of the content owners. Other technological advances, such as in cryptography and digital rights management systems, have also encouraged the electronic distribution of digital content. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,933,498; 5,982,891; 5,673,316; and 6,119,108 generally illustrate content distribution models incorporating these other technological advances.
While economics and technological advances provide incentives for electronic distribution of digital content, there are, however, still problems associated with this distribution which hamper the acceptance of such distribution, both on the part of content owners and consumers. While top of the line storage systems are highly reliable, they are still subject to hardware failure. Even more likely are other sources of accidental loss of data: operating system problems that could affect the file system are not infrequent, viruses could destroy data stored on disk and users may unknowingly delete files containing purchased content.
In addition, there are other disincentives for consumers to accept electronic distribution of content. As technology surrounding encoding of this content continues to advance at a rapid rate, and as the cost of distributing the content via communication mediums such as the Internet is greatly reduced in comparison to hard media distribution of content, it is quite possible that owners and distributors of content will likely be willing to change content formats at a much faster rate than is the current practice. Moreover, due to the fast pace of technological change, consumers may be concerned that the specific format that is offered today will be superseded by a new one in a short lapse of time, and that old content will either be incompatible with new players or will lack the quality of newer formats.
Most content commercially available, such as news and entertainment content, has one common characteristic: it does not change over time. As noted, the media or encoding may change over time, e.g., from big screen format to 8 mm to VHS to DVD, however, the actual content remains constant. If an individual copy of a classic is lost, becomes damaged, or there is not a player compatible with a particular format available, a new copy would be a perfect substitute for the old one, with the possible exception of copies that are considered memorabilia. That is, a new copy of the content would perfectly replace the old content.
The present invention leverages the stability of this type of content by providing an insurance policy that can be purchased alongside digital content. Should an unexpected loss of data occur, the policyholder would be entitled to a new copy of the same material. In another embodiment, the present invention has the additional advantage of guaranteeing to consumers that new encodings of the same content they have already purchased would be made available to them as technology evolves. These would improve the adoption rate of digital distribution of content by reducing switching costs and the perceived risks, and, in addition, increase revenues to members of the distribution channel.